[A catamnestic study of psychiatric consultations of patients with somatic diseases]

The aim of the study was to analyse diagnoses made during psychiatric consultations in somatic wards of the multi-profile hospital, as well as the catamnestic analysis of their causes and determinants. The authors intended to estimate the needs for psychiatric consultations in a multi-profile hospital, to analyse a growth or decrease in demand for psychiatric consultations within two years, the analysis of psychiatric diagnoses made in the course of consultations qualifying a patient for transfer to the psychiatric clinic.

Personal experience from work as a consultant psychiatrist as well as data from the literature were used in the study. The collected research material in the form of psychiatric consultations concerned the case histories of the Archive of the 10 Military Clinical Hospital with Polyclinic in Bydgoszcz from 2006-2007. A total of 735 consultations in 630 patients were carried out.

The results of the study indicated that in a multi-profile hospital there is a great demand for psychiatric consultations. The most frequent cause of reporting the need for consultation by doctors in somatic wards were depressive disorders. The results obtained also showed that the fact of alcohol intoxication at admission is an important factor which can potentially have an effect on the need for a psychiatric consultation as well as a later decision to transfer the patient to other hospital departments. Additional psychological consultations commissioned in patients moved to psychiatric clinic were carried out in an amount higher than average, and the largest number of them were carried out among those refusing the transfer.

The most often diagnoses made during consultations were: dysphoria and affective disorders secondary to organic changes, adaptive disorders and delirium.